SOMEWHERE OVER THE ATLANTIC OCEAN — Now for the question you know you’ve been dying to ask for three weeks about the Team USA men’s basketball “Avengers”: With their gold-medal mission accomplished, which players on this star-studded squad are going to join forces on an NBA team down the road?
With the national team’s rich history of such things, it’s only natural to wonder. The Miami Heat-les trio of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh that teamed up in 2010 had USAB roots, as they grew close while playing together in the 2006 FIBA World Cup in Japan and Beijing Olympics in 2008.
The Golden State Warriors dynasty had a similar story, with Kevin Durant, Andre Iguodala and Stephen Curry bonding in Turkey at the FIBA World Cup in 2010 then finding a way to come together six years later (Iguodala and Durant were also together on the 2012 Olympic team in London). Just last week, longtime NBA veteran and ESPN commentator Kendrick Perkins claimed that James Harden, while playing for Team USA at the London Olympics, was strongly encouraged by his superstar teammates to leave his sixth-man role with the Oklahoma City Thunder that summer and pursue a more worthy role elsewhere (he would be the centerpiece of the Houston Rockets by that October).
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But the tricky part about this phenomenon, and the thing that makes it so hard to handicap whether we’ll see a super team spawned out of the Paris Games, is that you’d need telepathic powers to figure out if any of these All-Stars are truly thinking about playing together down the road. This sort of process isn’t typically linear, with other developments needing to unfold on each player’s respective NBA squad before those Team USA connections come into play. What’s more, the freedom that comes with free agency, more often than not, plays a part.
Yet when it comes to the relationships that appear to have grown these past four weeks — from Las Vegas to Abu Dhabi, London, Lille and the City of Light — there are a few worth highlighting and monitoring.
But the thing to remember, and the factor that always plays a pivotal part when stars decide to align, is that it all starts with the competitive status of their current team. To that end, we begin with two legends in advanced age who have eight NBA championships between them but whose teams were home by the end of April.
LeBron and Steph
This one gets top billing because of what went down at the February trade deadline, when we learned Curry’s Warriors made an unsuccessful bid to the Lakers for LeBron. That sort of breadcrumb, one that was so fascinating to consider after all the years they’d spent as rivals during all those Cavs-Warriors NBA Finals face-offs, tells you two things that still remain relevant.
- Curry had given a thumbs-up to the idea, which reflects a level of comfort between the two even before they worked so beautifully together en route to Olympic gold.
- The Warriors clearly had intel suggesting this was a pitch worth making. At the time, James was approaching his (possible) free agency, and there seemed to be enough questions as to whether he’d want to stay in Laker Land that it led to a conversation between Golden State owner Joe Lacob and the Lakers’ Jeanie Buss.
James signaled he’d rather stay put, and the whole idea died on the vine as a result. But he would go on to sign a two-year, $101.4 million deal, one that includes a player option in the second year and a no-trade clause. Point being, the same Warriors-Lakers dynamics could be there again this upcoming season — especially if the Lakers are struggling in the kind of way that makes James rethink his strategy in these final few years. As a relevant sidenote, Team USA/Warriors coach Steve Kerr seemed to click with James all the way through as well.
There’s one massive problem with that plan, though: Bronny James now plays for the Lakers. It’s hard to imagine LeBron wanting to go anywhere now that his son is wearing the purple and gold. So, could the 36-year-old Curry become so fed up with the diminished help around him in Warriors World that he heads for the exits and somehow pairs up with the 39-year-old James and fellow Team USA star, 31-year-old Anthony Davis?
It seems unlikely, what with Curry’s stated goal of playing his entire career with the Warriors. But he’s a competitor of the highest order, one who just saw his team say goodbye this summer to his beloved backcourt mate, Klay Thompson, this summer while failing in its pursuits of Paul George and Lauri Markkanen. With that backdrop, it’s worth a reminder that he made this ominous comment to Yahoo! Sports’ Vincent Goodwill while at Team USA’s Las Vegas training camp in early July.
“It’s always been my goal, and I’m saying that sitting in this chair right now,” Curry said about retiring with the Warriors. “But like you said, life, and especially life in the NBA, it is a wild environment, and things change quickly.”
In terms of Curry’s contract, he has two seasons left ($55.8 million and $59.6 million) and is eligible to add one more year on an extension this summer. Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. made it clear what the organization wants, telling our Anthony Slater that Curry can have “whatever he wants” and that he is “pretty confident he will be a Warrior for life.”
Again, it’s nearly impossible to see how these kinds of superstar pairings might get manifested in advance. There’s the Father Time factor to consider as well, as there’s no way of knowing how long James or Curry can stay elite enough to make these sorts of power plays worthwhile.
But this much we know: Curry and James played beautifully together in the Olympics, with James (who was named MVP) consistent throughout and Curry becoming an American hoops hero by saving Team USA in those last two spectacular games.
The fact that they clearly enjoyed each other’s company — constantly goofing around at practices and celebrating with such joy together after the biggest of wins — is of equal importance.
When it was over, after Curry put France to bed with that 3-point flurry and said “Nuit, Nuit” before closing the door, James decided to post the picture that perfectly captured their shared spirit.
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KD and Steph
The news conference after the Team USA gold-medal game — with Kerr, Curry and Kevin Durant all raving about one another on the same podium — was the kind of thing I never could have imagined five years ago. It happened from start to finish, with Durant and Curry sharing a mutual admiration society news conference at the start of the Olympics as well.
When Durant left Golden State for Brooklyn in free agency, there was a fair amount of shared baggage from their three years spent together. You don’t have to be Dr. Phil to figure that out, as Durant came very close to winning three consecutive championships — within a torn Achilles tendon, in fact — yet chose to head for the exits. But feelings evolve over time, and Curry and Durant spent the entire Team USA journey sharing the kind of deep reverence that was there during the best of times in their Warriors days.
On Curry’s side, it was notable the first-time Olympian would routinely reference Durant’s three gold medals (now four) and standing as the best Team USA player of all time. Durant, in turn, spoke glowingly about who Curry was, and remains, both on and off the floor.
Yet while the Warriors are clearly on the prowl for another big-time star, and with a known commodity like Durant certainly fitting that bill, Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia emphatically insisted the 35-year-old wasn’t going anywhere in late June in response to speculation of a possible Durant departure.
But how might Ishbia feel if they fall short again? Or Durant, fellow Team USA member Devin Booker or Bradley Beal, for that matter? Only time will tell, but the Suns’ first-round loss to Minnesota in last season’s playoffs wasn’t the sort of start any of them envisioned in their first season together.
Booker and … Kerr?
When the gold-medal game news conference was nearing an end, after they all fielded several questions about Curry, Durant and James, Kerr grabbed the microphone and announced that he had one more thing on his mind.
“Devin Booker is an incredible basketball player,” said Kerr, who chose to start Booker for every Olympic game en route to him averaging 11.7 points (team-best 56.5 percent from 3) and 3.3 assists. “Nobody asked about him, (but) he was our unsung MVP. I just wanted to say that.”
Curry, in turn, posted Kerr’s quote on his Instagram story and added the caption, “Damn straight!!!” while tagging Booker’s account.
For someone like Kerr, who is typically bound by the NBA’s tampering rules that tend to suppress an opposing coach’s public enthusiasm for another team’s stars, the Team USA environment allows him to speak his mind in the kind of way that could aid a recruiting effort one day. That’s not to say it was his intent, as Kerr seemed deeply genuine about Booker’s contributions. Even still, it’s a pretty convenient way to show a star player like Booker the kind of love he’ll never forget.
What’s more, the truth about the Suns is that rival teams are monitoring the desires of Durant and Booker. The Rockets, to cite one example I reported in late June, are among those teams that have Booker on their wish list.
But again, Ishbia has pushed back hard on this premise that these Suns will fail and he’ll be forced to blow it up amid all that pressure from the unforgiving luxury tax. They’re more invested in Booker than anyone else, with his contract running four more seasons for a combined total of approximately $220 million, and the notion of him being available anytime soon seems very unlikely. To hear Booker tell it at Team USA’s Vegas training camp in early July, he’s every bit as invested in this Suns group as Ishbia.
“I mean, I’ve never seen an owner do something like that before,” Booker said when I asked him about Ishbia’s tweet about Durant. “It just shows you what type of guy Mat is. He’s all in (on) the group that we have. We believe in the group that we have and the talent that we have.
“It’s not easy to win (a title), so I think having that hurt together and that experience together in the playoffs is going to help us moving forward. …Boston went through it (before winning it all in June). Obviously the (Celtics’) addition of Jrue (Holiday last summer) helped out a lot. But yeah, moving forward, you know, you live and you learn, and I think experience is the best teacher.”
The rest
Truth be told, we could workshop these fascinating scenarios all day.
Anthony Edwards and Durant became fast friends who were dynamic together in Team USA’s second unit, so does that mean the 23-year-old Minnesota Timberwolves star might find a way to persuade his favorite player to force a trade to his (frigid) part of the country? Don’t count on it — from either side. After Minnesota’s run to the Western Conference finals last season, and with Edwards’ star on a meteoric rise, it’s so-far-so-good for him with his current core.
Joel Embiid was desperately in need of help a few months ago, but the Philadelphia 76ers are all set for their next push after landing George in free agency and re-signing Tyrese Maxey.
Could Heat big man Bam Adebayo — whose running mate, Jimmy Butler, can be a free agent next summer — find the help he so desperately needs among his Team USA pals? Perhaps, but there are no visible dots to connect just yet.
The list, fanciful though it might be, goes on.
Required Reading
(Top photo of Stephen Curry and LeBron James: Aris Messinis / AFP via Getty Images)
